The game's decisive moment came as early as the third minute when Ashley Williams brought down Bojan and the Spaniard confidently tucked away his second goal of the season to send Stoke to a 1-0 victory which moves them to 11th place in the Premier League.

But Swansea might wonder whether they should have played against 10 men for most of the night following goalkeeper Jack Butland's rash challenge on Andre Ayew outside the area after 17 minutes.

Butland took a bad touch from Geoff Cameron's back pass and as Ayew closed in on the ball the England goalkeeper went in to the challenge studs first.

There was no doubt that Butland took the ball but some officials might have considered his actions reckless and reached for the red card.

Referee Robert Madley, however, judged it a fair challenge and waved play on much to Swansea's obvious displeasure.

The odds appeared stacked against Stoke as they had not won at the Liberty Stadium in four previous Premier League visits and it was almost four years since they had managed successive wins on the road.

But Stoke were the form team of the pair, their 1-0 success at Aston Villa last time out yielding a third successive win in all competitions, while Swansea had not won in five league and cup outings.

Those contrasting confidence levels were reflected almost instantly when Jack Cork's mistake allowed Bojan to run at the heart of the Swansea defence.

Bojan slipped past Federico Fernandez and tempted Williams into a careless challenge which was firmly punished from the spot, the fourth penalty in the last five fixtures between the two clubs.

Bafetimbi Gomis met Cork's cross to send a header wide but Stoke were almost the architects of their downfall when Butland's bad touch might have landed him in trouble.

Swansea were struggling to find any rhythm and slick Stoke approach play between Glenn Whelan and Marko Arnautovic deserved a better finish than Charlie Adam's wasteful effort.

The pattern remained the same after the interval with Swansea labouring for an opening and Stoke lively on the counter, Shaqiri firing wide twice and Arnautovic having the ball in the net only to be flagged for offside.

But Swansea were within inches of equalising when Jonjo Shelvey raced onto Ayew's pass and fired under the body of Butland to strike the far post, the closest they got to scoring.

Substitute Gylfi Sigurdsson also went close with a long-range effort but Stoke's excellent defensive organisation kept them at bay.

For Swansea, their worrying slide continues and they now fall to 14th place in the Premier League table.

TWEET OF THE MATCH

"Swansea have given the ball away more in this game than the previous 3 seasons combined."

- Gary Lineker @GaryLineker

https://twitter.com/GaryLineker/status/656206052787122176

PLAYER RATINGS

Swansea

Lukasz Fabianski 6 (out of 10)

Angel Rangel: 7

Ashley Williams: 6

Federico Fernandez: 7

Neil Taylor: 5

Jack Cork: 5

Jonjo Shelvey: 6

Jefferson Montero: 6

Modou Barrow: 5

Andre Ayew: 6

Bafetimbi Gomis: 4

Substitutes

Gylfi Sigurdsson (on for Barrow 59mins): 6

Ki Sung-yueng (on for Cork 59mins): 6

Eder (on for Ayew 80mins): 6

Stoke

Jack Butland: 6

Glen Johnson: 7

Geoff Cameron: 7

Philipp Wollscheid: 7

Erik Pieters: 7

Glenn Whelan: 8

Charlie Adam: 6

Marko Arnautovic: 7

Bojan Krkic: 8

Xherdan Shaqiri: 8

Joselu: 6

Substitutes

Marco van Ginkel (on for Adam 70 mins): 6

Ibrahim Afellay (on for Arnautovic 75 mins): 6

Stephen Ireland (on for Bojan 79 mins): 6

STAR MAN

Xherdan Shaqiri: Brought a touch of class to a game where graft outweighed craft. Two lovely balls into the right-hand channel almost paid off and was a constant thorn to the Swansea defence, even if his shooting was slightly off. Troubled Neil Taylor throughout and the Wales defender will be glad to see the back of him.

MOMENT OF THE MATCH

Stoke capitalised on errors in the Swansea defence to strike in the third minute. Cork's mistake allowed Bojan to expose Swansea's centre-backs, easing past Federico Fernandez before tempting Ashley Williams into a rash challenge. The finish from the penalty spot was just as impressive - he never looked like wasting the opportunity.

VIEW FROM THE BENCH

Garry Monk opted to give the quicksilver but raw Modou Barrow only his second Premier League start to energise the Swansea frontline. Gylfi Sigurdsson paid the price for being out of sorts of late but Swansea rarely found any fluency. Mark Hughes has his Stoke side well drilled and he will be delighted that his attacking additions Bojan Krkic and Xherdan Shaqiri are now building on that solid base.

MOAN OF THE MATCH

Why do goalkeepers seems to get away with things that outfield players can not? Jack Butland's studs up challenge on Andre Ayew might have merited a red card had it come from any of the 20 outfield players on the pitch. Butland took the ball but it was reckless and could even have been a leg-breaker had Ayew not taken evasive action.

WHO'S UP NEXT?

Aston Villa v Swansea (Barclays Premier League, October 24)

Stoke v Watford (Barclays Premier League, October 24)

Swansea boss Garry Monk admitted his side made too many mistakes in the first half.

He told Sky Sports 1: "I'm obviously very disappointed with the result but I kind of knew they would come and play on the counter mostly in the game. We prepared for that.

"The difficulty is making sure you don't give away that first goal.

"I think we made too many mistakes from our possession in that first half. Once they got that goal it was clear they were going to defend very very deep, which made it difficult for us at that point.

"We found it difficult to break them down. We had a lot of the ball but probably just couldn't do enough with it to get those real chances on their goal after they went the goal up."

Stoke goalkeeper Jack Butland admitted he made a "bit of a mess" of his challenge on Andre Ayew in the first half.

He added: "Obviously it was a miscue - I was trying to play the ball into Glenn (Whelan) and obviously made a bit of a mess of it.

"That's why I don't do many tackles. Hopefully I won't have to be in that situation again and I'm just thankful it fell the right way and came off scot-free."

His manager Mark Hughes was happy with his side's performance.

"I was pleased with the amount of control that we had of the game. I thought we were calm in possession and knocked the ball around really well.

"Obviously Swansea have got a reputation for doing that but I think certainly we matched them in that regard.

"We were always a threat on the break, I felt - certainly we had good opportunities in the first half.

"If we had taken a little bit more care maybe with the final pass, we would have possibly capitalised on even more of the opportunities or good situations that we found ourselves in.

"I felt it was a good away performance, a good professional performance and we deserved the three points today."